On Tuesday, 25 July, the launch of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon was held to present this years’ event which will commence in 50 days’ time. The launch highlighted that the Cape Town Marathon has officially received IAAF Gold Label status and intends to work towards being the biggest road race in Africa. The hope is that this event will one day become one of the major races and be linked to the likes of the London, Berlin and Chicago marathons.

This race promotes an initiative called RUN4CHANGE that encourages athletes to take action and use this platform to contribute and make a positive change. The initiative is supported by five pillars, namely health and wellness, fundraising and charities, peace and sport, sustainability, and development and empowerment of South African Athletes. Various official sponsors will be supporting this initiative and over 50 charities will be beneficiaries of the race this year.

In terms of sustainability, the Marathon is promoting a #RUNGREEN campaign.

This campaign prompts runners to take responsibility for their waste and to reduce, reuse, recycle ,as well as off-set their carbon footprint. The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon is a certified climate neutral event and various strategies have been implemented to ensure this.

The Marathon has committed to measuring the carbon of the event and off-setting it in various ways with Sanlam and The Climate Neutral Group.

The event is promoting the athletes to also measure their own carbon footprint and off-set if by taking the green pledge and sponsoring a tree with Greenpop.

Other green initiatives include using more local suppliers for the event and implementing strategies for reducing waste. They also have a zero waste to landfill policy and will be having ‘green chuck zones’ and an on-site recycling plant.